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THE 

NOMINATION   TO   THE  PEESIDENCY 

OF 

PETER     COOPER. 

AND    HIS 

ADDRESS  TO  THE  INDIANAPOLIS  CONVENTION 

OF  THE 

NATIONAL  INDEPENDENT  PARTY. 


INTRODUCTION. 

MR.  COOPER'S  political  ideas  are  very  simple,  and  consist  of  twc 
fundamental  principles  and  their  application  to  national  life  and  hap- 
piness. 

First,  the  independence  of  a  nation  must  be  secured  from  all  foreign 
dictation,  interference,  or  even  undue  influence,  in  its  political  and  civil 
life,  and  in  its  industrial  business  and  financial  interests. 

Secondly,  in  domestic  administration,  "  equal  rights  to  all "  should 
prevail — political,  social,  and  industrial — as  necessary  to  the  "  preserva- 
tion of  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness." 

These  two  fundamental  principles,  he  thinks,  are  far  from  having 
been  achieved  in  the  history  of  nations. 

The  struggle  for  national  life  and  happiness,  now  going  on,  consists 
in  the  vindication  and  practical  application  of  the  two  principles  of 
foreign  independence  and  domestic  rights.  "  Peace  on  earth  and  good- 
will towards  men "  can  only  be  obtained  when  nations  cease  to  war  on 
each  other,  in  any  way,  and  communities  recognize  and  enforce  equal 
rights  for  individuals.  But  Mr.  Cooper  recognizes  the  fact  that, 
although  nations  may  not  be  actually  at  war  with  each  other,  at  some 
times,  there  is  a  quasi  war,  a  state  of  hostility  of  "  interests,  but  ill  un- 
derstood," a  commercial  and  financial  war  going  on,  all  the  time,  .between 
,  nations. 

The  same  is  the  fact  in  the  domestic  history  of  nations.  Actual 
rebellions  and  revolutions  result  from  a  policy  of  hostility  between  tho 
different  classes  that  may  divide  the  nation;  but  if  these  are  not  in 
progress,  there  is  still  going  on,  all  the  time,  a  quasi  war  of  "  interests 
but  ill  understood,"  between  individuals  and  classes,  that  results  in 
monopolies  and  unequal  rights  of  all  kinds. 

THE    NOMINATION    OF    MR.    COOPER. 

ON  the  17th  of  May,  1876,  a  large  and  enthusiastic  convention  of 
the  friends  of  a  specific  national  currency,  commonly  called  the 
<4  Gruenback,"  met,  ancl  organized  the  "  National  Independent  Party." 


MJL86244 


;  ; o 

'  o 

The  convention  adopted  a  platform,  and  nominated  unanimously  Mr 
Peter  Cooper  as  their  candidate  for  the  Presidency  of  the  United 
States. 

Mr.  Cooper  was  telegraphed  the  result,  but  peremptorily  declined,  at 
first,  for  personal  reasons.  Afterwards,  on  the  earnest  representations 
of  friends,  he  made  a  conditional  acceptance,  based  upon  the  hope  that 
one  of  the  subsequent  conventions  to  be  held  by  both  the  Republican 
and  Democratic  parties  might  assume  a  favorable  aspect  towards  the 
financial  doctrines  of  the  Independent  party.  In  this  hope  he  was 
entirely  disappointed,  as  well  as  in  the  two  letters  of  acceptance  of  the 
two  candidates  nominated  by  their  respective  parties.  Mr.  Cooper  then 
addressed  an  "  open  letter  "  to  those  candidates  and  to  the  country, 
accepting,  finally,  and  unconditionally,  his  nomination,  and  giving  his 
reasons  for  the  same. 

We  give  here,  first,  his  address  to  the  convention  of  the  Independent 
party. 

Secondly,  the  platform  adopted  by  the  convention. 

Thirdly,  Mr.  Cooper's  letter  of  conditional  acceptance. 

Fourthly,  the  "  open  letter  "  of  final  acceptance. 


*'  To  the  Convention^  held  at  Indianapolis,  of  the  National  Independent 
Party ,  May  \lth,  1876. 

u GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  CONVENTION: 

"  We  have  met,  my  friends,  to  unite  in  a  course  of  efforts  to  find  out, 
and,  if  possible,  to  remove  a  cause  of  evil  that  has  shrunk  the  value  of  the 
real  estate  of  the  nation  to  a  condition  where  it  cannot  be  sold,  or  mort- 
gages obtained  on  it  for  much  more  than  one-half  the  amount  that  the 
same  property  would  have  brought  three  years  ago.  This  dire  calamity 
has  been  brought  on  our  country  by  the  acts  of  our  Government.  The 
first  act  took  from  the  national  money  its  power  to  pay  interest  on 
oonds  and  duties  on  imports.  The  second  act  has  contracted  the  currency 
of  the  country  until  it  has  shrunk  the  value  of  property  to  its  present 
condition  by  destroying  public  confidence ;  and  that  without  shrinking 
any  of  the  debts  contracted  in  its  use. 

"  I  do  most  humbly  hope  that  I  shall  be  able  to  show  the  fatal  causes 
that  have  been  allowed  to  operate  and  bring  this  wretchedness  and  ruin 
to  the  'homes  of  untold  thousands  of  the  men  and  the  women  throughout 
our  country. 


9 

"  Facts  will  show  that  it  was  the  unwise  acts  of  our  own  Governmenf 
that  have  allowed  a  policy  to  prevail,  more  in  the  interest  of  foreign 
governments  than  our  own. 

"  It  was  these  unwise  acts  of  legislation  that  brought  discredit  on  our 
national  money,  as  I  have  said,  by  introducing  into  the  law  that  created 
it  that  terrible  word  except,  which  took  from  our  legal  money  its  power 
to  pay  interest  on  bonds,  and  duties  on  imports. 

"  The  introduction  of  that  little  word  except  into  the  original  law  drew 
tears  from  the  eyes  of  Thaddeus  Stephens  when  he  looked  down  the  cur- 
rent of  events  and  saw  our  bonds  in  the  hands  of  foreigners,  who  would 
be  receiving  a  gold  interest  on  every  hundred  dollars  of  bonds  that  cost 
them  but  fifty  or  sixty  dollars  in  gold. 

"  But  for  the  introduction  of  that  word  except  into  that  original  law, 
our  bonds  would  have  been  taken  at  par  by  our  own  people,  and  the 
interest  would  have  been  paid  at  home  in  currency,  instead  of  being  paid 
to  foreigners  in  gold. 

"  An  additional  calamity  has  been  brought  on  our  country  by  a  national 
policy  that  has  taken  from  the  people  their  currency,  the  tools  of  their 
trades,  the  very  life-blood  of  the  traffic  and  commerce  of  our  country. 

"  Facts  show  that  in  1865  there  was  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  as  a 
currency,  $58  per  head,  and  that  at  a  time  of  our  greatest  national 
prosperity. 

"  We  have  now  arrived  at  a  time  of  unequalled  adversity,  with  a  cur- 
rency in  1875  of  $17T3-^j-  per-  capita,  with  failures  amounting  to  two 
hundred  millions  of  dollars  in  a  year. 

*'  Among  the  causes  that  now  afflict  the  country,  it  may  be  well  to  look 
at  the  enormous  increase  in  our  foreign  importations,  which  amounted 
to  3J9  millions  in  the  year  1868,  and  increased  to  684  millions  of  dollars 
in  1873,  and  was  574  millions  of  dollars  in  1875. 

"  I  think  you  will  agree  with  me,  when  I  say  that  prosperity  can-  never 
be  restored  to  our  beloved  country  by  a  national  policy  that  enforces 
idleness  and  financial  distress  on  so  vast  a  number  of  the  laborers  and 
business  men  of  this  country.  Our  nation's  wealth  must  forever  de- 
pend on  the  application  of  knowledge,  economy,  and  well-directed  labor 
to  all  the  useful  and  necessary  purposes  of  life,  but  also  a  proper  legis- 
lation for  the  people. 

"  The  American  people  can  never  buy  anything  cheap  from  foreign 
countries  that  must  be  bought  at  the  cost  of  leaving  our  own  good  raw 
materials  unused,  and  our  own  labor  unemployed. 

"  I  find  myself  compelled  to  "believe  that  much  of  the  rast  legislation 
of  our  country,  in  reference  to  tariff  and  currency,  has  been  adopted 


10 

under  the'advice  and  influence  of  men  in  the  interest  of  foreign  nations 
that  have  a  direct  motive  to  mislead  and  deceive  us.  Our  prosperity 
as  a  nation  will  commence  to  return  when  the  Congress  of  our  country 
shall  assume  its  own  inherent  sovereign  right  to  furnish  all  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  United  States  a  redeemable,  uniform,  unfluctuating 
national  currency. 

"  I  do  heartily  agree  with  Senator  Jones,  when  he  says  that  f  the 
present  is  the  acceptable  time  to  undo  the  unwitting  and  blundering 
work  of  1873  ;  and  to  render  our  legislation  on  the  subject  of  money, 
consistent  with  the  physical  facts,  concerning  the  stock  and  supply  of 
the  precious  metals  throughout  the  world,  and  conformable  to  the  con- 
stitution of  our  country.' 

"  I  sincerely  hope  that  the  concluding  advice  of  Senator  Jones  will  c 
make  a  living  and  lasting  impression,  when  he  says,  speaking  to  the 
present  Senate,  '  We  cannot,  we  dare  not,  avoid  speedy  action  on  the 
subject.  Not  only  does  reason,  justice,  and  authority  unite  in  urging 
us  to  retrace  our  steps,  but  the  organic  law  commands  us  to  do  so ;  and 
the  presence  of  peril  enjoins  what  the  law  commands.' 

"  The  Senator  states  a  most  important  fact,  and  one  that  all  know  to 
be  true,  '  that  by  interfering  with  the  standards  of  the  country,  Con- 
gress has  led  the  country  away  from  the  realms  of  prosperity,  and 
thrust  it  beyond  the  bounds  of  safety.'  He  says,  truly,  'to  refuse  to 
replace  it  upon  its  former  vantage  ground  would  be  to  incur  a  respon- 
sibility and  a  deserved  reproach,  greater  than  that  which  men  have 
ever  before  felt  themselves  able  to  bear.' 

"  It  will  require  all  the  wisdom  that  can  be  gathered  from  the  history 
and  experience  of  the  past  to  enable  us  to  work  out  our  salvation  from 
the  evils  that  an  unwise  legislation  has  brought  on  our  country. 

"  It  will  be  found  that  nothing  short  of  a  full,  fair,  and  frank  perform- 
ance pf  the  first  duty  enjoined  on  Congress  by  the  Constitution  will 
ever  restore  permanent  prosperity  to  us  as  a  nation. 

"  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  most  essential  element  of  our  colonial 
and  national  prosperity  was  obtained  by  the  use  of  the  legal-tender 
paper  money — the  very  thing  that  our  present  rulers  seem  now  deter- 
mined to  hold  up  to  ridicule  and  contempt.  We  are  apt  to  forget  that 
the  f  continental  money '  secured  for  us  a  country,  and  the  £  green- 
back' currency  has  saved  us  as  a  nation. 

"  Sir  A.  Alison,  the  able  and  indefatigable  English  historian,  has  borne 
testimony  to  the  superior  power  and  value  of  paper  money.  He  says  • 
*  When  sixteen  hundred  thousand  men,  on  both  sides,  were  in  the  con- 


11  \ 

fcinental  wars  with  France  in  Germany  and  Spain  alone,  where  nothing 
could  be  purchased  except  by  specie,  it  is  not  surprising  that  guineas 
went  where  they  were  so  much  needed,  and  bore  so  high  a  price.'  .  .  . 
*  In  truth  such  was  the  need  of  precious  metals,  awing  to  this  cause, 
that  one-tenth  of  the  currency  of  the  world  was  attracted  to  Germany 
as  a  common  centre,  and  the  demand  could  not  be  supplied ;  and  by  a 
decree  in  September,  1813,  from  Peterwalsden,  in  Germany,  the  allied 
sovereigns  issued  paper  notes,  guaranteed  by  .Russia,  Prussia,  and  Eng- 
land. These  notes  passed  as  cash  from  Karnskatkha  to  the  Rhine,  and 
gave  the  currency  which  brought  the  war  to  a  successful  close.' 

"  In  a  recent  edition  of  the  (  History  of  Europe,'  Sir  A.  Alison  gives 
an  additional  evidence  of  the  important  advantages  which  experience 
has  demonstrated  to  result  from  the  use  of  paper  currency. 

"  He  says,  *  To  the  suspension  of  cash  payments  by  the  act  of  1797, 
and  the  power  in  consequence  vested  in  the  Bank  of  England,  of 
expanding  its  paper  circulation  in  proportion  to  the  abstraction  of  a 
metallic  currency,  the  wants  of  the  country  and  the  resting  of  the 
national  industry  on  a  basis  not  liable  to  be  taken  away  by  the  muta- 
tions of  commerce  or  the  necessities  of  war — it  is  to  these  facts  that 
the  salvation  of  the  empire  must  be  ascribed.'  ...  f  It  is  remarkable 
that  this  admirable  system,  which  may  be  truly  called  the  working 
power  of  nations  during  war,  became  at  the  close  of  the  war  the  object 
of  the  most  determined  hostility  on  the  part  of  the  great  capitalists 
and  chief  writers  of  Political  Economy  in  the  country.'  .  .  .  (  Here, 
however,'  says  Alison,  { as  everywhere  else,  experience,  the  great  test 
of  the  truth,  has  determined  the  question.  The  adoption  of  the  oppo- 
site system  of  contracting  the  paper  currency  in  proportion  to  the 
abstraction  of  the  metallic  currency  by  the  acts  of  1§19  and  1844,  fol- 
lowed as  they  were  by  the  monetary  crises  of  1825,:  1839,  and  1847, 
have  demonstrated  beyond  a  doubt  that  it  was  in  the  system  of  an 
expansive  currency  that  Great  Britain,  during  the  war,  found  the  sole 
means  of  her  salvation.  From  1797  to  1815  commerce,  manufactures, 
and  agriculture  advanced  in  England,  in  spite  of  all  the  evils  of  war, 
with  a  rapidity  greater  than  they  had  previously  done  in  centuries  before. 
This  proves  beyond  a  doubt  the  power  of  paper  money  to  increase 
the  wealth  of  a  nation.' 

"  It  is  worth  while  to  observe  that  this  same  Sir  A.  Alison,  who  speaks 
so  wisely  on  this  subject  in  reference  to  the  history  of  his  own  country, 
while  scanning  a  few  years  ago  the  prosperity  of  our  country  during 
the  war  of  the  Rebellion  and  immediately  after,  has  a  foreboding  of 
what  might  happen,  and  remarks :  '  The  American  Government  may 


/    12 

make  financial  and  legislative  mistakes  which  may  check  the  progress 
*f  the  nation  and  counteract  the  advantages  which  paper"  money  has 
already  bestowed  upon  them;  they  may  adopt  the  unwise  and  unjusi 
system  which  England  adopted  at  the  close  of  the  French  war ;  they 
may  resolve  to  pay  in  gold,  and  with  low  prices,  the  debt  contracted 
with  paper,  and  with  high  prices.  But  whatever  they  may  do,'  he  adds, 
'  nothing  can  shake  the  evidence  which  the  experience  of  that  nation 
during  the  last  six  years  affords  of  the  power  of  paper  money  to  pro- 
mote a  nation's  welfare.' 

"  Sir  Walter  Scott,  in  his  '  Malachi  Margrowther's  Letters,'  shows 
how  the  wealth  of  a  nation  is  increased  by  paper  money.  '  I  assume,' 
he  says,  '  without  hazard  of  contradiction,  that  banks  have  existed  in 
Scotland  for  near  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  ;  that  they  have  nour- 
ished, and  the  country  has  flourished  with  them ;  and  that  during  the 
last  twenty  years  particularly  the  notes,  and  especially  the  small  notes 
which  the  banks  distribute,  supply  all  the  demand  for  a  medium  of 
currency.  This  system  has  so  completely  expelled  gold  from  Scotland 
that  you  never  by  any  chance  espy  a  guinea  there,  except  in  the  purse 
of  an  accidental  stranger,  or  in  the  coffers  of  the  banks  themselves.  But 
the  facilities  which  this  paper  has  afforded  to  the  industrious  and  enter- 
prising agriculturists  and  manufacturers,  as  well  as  to  the  trustees  of 
the  public,  in  executing  national  works,  have  converted  Scotland  from 
a  poor,  miserable,  barren  country  into  one  where,  if  nature  has  done 
less,  art  and  industry  have  done  more  than,  perhaps,  in  any  other 
country  in  Europe,  England  not  excepted.' 

"  President  Grant,  in  his  message  of  1873,  said,  <  The  experience  of 
the  present  panic  has  proven  that  the  currency  of  the  country,  based, 
as  it  is,  upon  its  credit,  is  the  best  that  has  ever  been  devised.'  .  .  . 
*  In  view  of  the  great  actual  contraction  that  has  taken  place  in  the 
currency,  and  the  comparative  contraction  continuously  going  on,  due 
to  the  increase  of  the  population,  the  increase  of  manufactories  and  of 
all  industries,  I  do  not  believe  there  is  too  much  of  it  now  for  the  dull- 
est period  of  the  year.' 

"  Notwithstanding  these  recommendations  of  the  President,  Congress 
has  continued  to  tax  the  people  and  contract  the  national  currency  in  a 
vain  effort  to  arrive  at  specie  payments. 

"  Our  Government  should  have  left  that  amount  of  currency  in  the 
hands  of  the  people,  which  the  necessities  of  war  had  compelled  it  to 
put  in  circulation  as  the  only  means  of  the  national  salvation. 

"  Every  dollar  of  currency  paid  out,  whether  gold,  silver,  or  paper,  was 
given  out  for  c  value  received,'  and  thus  became,  oy  the  act  of  the  Gov- 


13 

eminent,  a  valid  claim  for  a  dollar's  worth  of  the  whole  property  of  the 
country.     Hence,  not  a  dollar  of  it  should  ever  have  been  withdrawn. 

"  It  is  now  almost  universally  believed  that  had  the  Treasury  notes 
continued,  as  at  first  issued,  to  be  received  for  all  forms  of  taxes,  du- 
ties, and  debts,  they  would  have  circulated  to  this  day,  as  they  did  then, 
as  so  much  gold,  precisely  as  the  Government  paper  did  circulate  in 
France  when  put  upon  the  same  footing. 

lt  This  would  have  saved  our  country  more  than  one-half  of  the  amount 
of  the  whole  expenses  of  the  war  in  the  present  shrinkage  of  values  and 
the  interruption  to  honest  industry.  It  would  have  saved  us,  also,  from 
the  perpetual  drainage  of  gold  to  pay  interest  on  our  foreign  indebted- 
ness. 

"  Gentlemen  of  the  Convention,  I  have  heretofore  enlarged  upon  what 
seemed  to  me  the  true  financial  policy  of  this  country  in  pamphlets  and 
writings  that  I  have  had  the  honor  to  lay  before  the  country,  so  that 
it  would  be  a  vain  repetition  to  go  much  into  that  subject  now. 

<;  The  paper  currency,  commonly  called  '  legal  tenders  '  or  '  green- 
backs,' was  actually  paid  out  for  value  received  as  sp  much  gold,  when 
gold  could  not  be  obtained. 

"  This  being  an  incontrovertible  fact,  it  follows  that  every  Treasury 
note,  demand  note,  or  legal  tender,  given  out  as  money,  in  payment  for 
any  form  of  labor  and  property  received  by  the  Government,  became, 
in  the  possession  of  its  owners,  real  dollars  that  could  not  be  taken 
constitutionally  from  the  people,  except  by  uniform  taxes,  as  on  other 
property. 

"  But  whether  our  currency  will  be  always  on  a  par  with  gold  or  not, 
I  have  shown  from  history,  and  incontrovertible  facts  prove  it,  that  the 
commercial  and  industrial  prosperity  of  a  country  do  not  depend  upon 
the  amount  of  gold  and  silver  there  is  in  circulation.  Our  prosperity 
must  continually  depend  upon  the  industry,  the  enterprise,  and  the 
busy  internal  trade  and  a  true  independence  of  foreign  nations,  which  a 
paper  circulation,  well  based  on  sound  credit,  has  always  been  found  to 
promote. 

'*  But  I  believe  prosperity  can  never  again  bless  our  glorious  country 
until  justice  is  established,  by  giving  back  to  the  people  the  exact 
amount  of  currency  found  in  circulation  at  the  close  of  the  war.  That 
was  the  price  of  the  nation's  life.  It  ought  to  be  restored  and  made 
the  peimanent  and  unfluctuating  measure  of  all  values,  through  all 
coming  time — never  to  be  increased  or  diminished,  only,  as  per  capita,, 
with  the  increase  of  the  inhabitants  of  our  country. 

"  This  currency  must  be  made  receivable  for  all  forms  of  taxes,  duties, 


14 

ana  debts,  and  convertible  into  interest-bearing  bonds,  at  some  equit- 
able rate  of  interest,  and  reconvertible  into  currency  at  the  will  of  the 
holder.  This,  we  believe,  will  secure  uniformity  of  value  to  a  degree 
that  gold  has  never  attained.  President  Steele,  of  Lawrence  -Univer- 
sity, has  well  said  on  this  subject : 

" l  In  fixing  a  standard,  it  is  essential  to  select  something  that  is  as 
nearly  as  possible  invariable.  The  conventional  unit  of  lineal  measure 
must  not  be  a  line  which  averages  a  foot,  though  it  may  be  fourteen 
inches  to-day  and  nine  inches  to-morrow.  The  bushel  measure  should 
'not  contain  two  or  three  quarts  more  or  less  at  one  time  than  at 
another.  For  the  same  reasooi  it  is  desirable  that  the  unit  of  value 
should  have  the  same  purchasing  power  next  week  that  it  has  now.' 

"  In  conclusion,  Gentlemen,  I  think  we  have  reason  to  congratulate 
ourselves  on  the  great  awakening  of  the  public  mind  in  regard  to  this 
question  of  finance.  The  people  are  beginning  to  recognize  their  rights 
and  their  duties  in  this  matter.  I  think  the  time  has  come  to  exhort 
every  one  to  go  to  the  ballot-box  and  select  good  and  true  men,  who 
will  legislate  in  accordance  with  justice,  the  Constitution,  and  the  true 
interests  of  the  people ;  and  give  us  what  will  always  stand  as  a  monu- 
ment of  political  wisdom,  a  true  natidnal  currency. 

'•  With  devout  wishes  for  the  success  of  all  measures  tending  to  this 
object,  I  remain  yours,  in  the  common  interests  of  our  beloved  country." 

THE  PLATFORM  OF  THE  INDEPENDENT  PARTY. 

The  following  is  the  Platform  of  the  Independent  Party,  as  adopted 
by  its  National  Convention  at  Indianapolis  : 

"  The  Independent  Party  is  called  into  existence  by  the  necessities  of 
the  people  whose  industries  are  prostrated,  whose  labor  is  deprived  of 
its  just  reward  as  the  result  of  the  serious  mismanagement  of  the  national 
finances,  which  errors  both  the  Republican  and  Democratic  parties 
neglect  to  correct.  In  view  of  the  failure  of  these  parties  to  furnish 
relief  to  the  depressed  industries  of  the  country,  thereby  disappointing 
the  just  hopes  and  expectations  of  a  suffering  people,  we  declare  our 
principles  and  invite  all  independent  and  patriotic  men  to  join  our  ranks 
in  this  movement  for  financial  reform  and  industrial  emancipation. 

"First — fWe  demand  the  immediate  and  unconditional  repeal  of  the 
Specie-resumption  Act  of  January  14,  1875,  and  the  rescue  of  our  in- 
dustries from  the  disaster  and  ruin  resulting  from  its  enforcement,  and 
we  call  upon  all  patriotic  men  to  organize  in  every  Congressional  district 
of  the  country,  with  the  view  of  electing  representatives  in  Congress 
who  will  legislate  for,  an4~  a  Chief  Magistrate  who  will  carry  out  the 


15 

wishes  of,  the  people  in  this  regard,  and  thus  stop  the  present  suicidal 
and  destructive  policy  of  contraction. 

"  Second — We  believe  that  United  States  notes,  issued  directly  by 
the  Government  and  convertible  on  demand  into  United  States  obliga- 
tions, bearing  an  equitable  rate  of  interest  (not  exceeding  one  cent  a 
day  on  each  one  hundred  dollars),  and  interchangeable  with  United 
States  notes  at  par,  will  afford  the  best  circulating  medium  ever  devised  j 
such  United  States  notes  should  be  a  full  legal  bender  for  all  purposes, 
except  for  the  payment  of  such  obligations  as  are  by  existing  contracts 
expressly  made  payable  in  coin.  And  we  hold  that  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  Government  to  .provide  such  a  circulating  medium,  and  we  insist, 
in  the  language  of  Thoman  Jefferson,  '  that  bank  paper  must  be  sup- 
pressed and  the  circulation  restored  to  the  nation,  to  whom  it  belongs.' 

"  Third — It  is  the  paramount  duty  of  the  Government  in  all  its  legis- 
lation to  keep  in  view  the  full  development  of  all  legitimate  business, 
agricultural,  mining,  manufacturing,  and  Commercial. 

"  Fourth — We  most  earnestly  protest  against  any  further  issue  of 
gold  bonds,  for  sale  in  foreign  markets,  by  means  of  which  we  would  be 
made,  for  a  longer  period,  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water  for 
foreign  nations,*!  especially  as  the  American  people  would  gladly  and 
promptly  take  ait  par  all  the  bonds  the  Government  may  need  to  sell, 
provided  they  are  made  payable  at  the  option  of  the  holder,  although 
bearing  interest  at  three  and  sixty-five  one-hundredths  per  cent,  per 
annum,  or  even  a  lower  rate. 

"  Fifth — We  further  protest  against  the  sale  of  Government  bonds 
for  the  purpose  of  buying  silver  to  be  used  as  a  substitute  for  our  more 
convenient  and  less  fluctuating  fractional  currency,  which,  although  well 
calculated  to  enrich  the  owners  of  silver  mines,  yet  in  operation  will 
still  further  oppress  through  taxation  an  already  overburdened  people." 

MR.    COOLER'S   ACCEPTANCE. 

"NEW  YORK,  May  31,  1876. 

"  Hon.  MOSES  W.  FIELD,  Chairman,  and  Hon.  THOMAS  J.  DURANT, 
Secretary  of  the  National  Executive  Council  of  the  Independent 
Party : 

"  GENTLEMEN — Your  formal,  official  notification  of  the  unanimous 
nomination,  tendered  by  the  National  Convention  of  the  Independent 
Party  at  Indianapolis,  on  the  17th  instant,  to  me  for  the  high  office  of 
President  of  the  United  States  is  before  me  ;  .  together  with 

an  authenticated  copy  of  the  admirable  platform  which  the  Convention 
adopted. 

5 


16 

"While  I  most  heartily  thank  the  Contention  through  you  for  the 
great  honor  they  have  thus  conferred  upon  me,  kindly  permit  me  to  saj 
that  there  is  a  bare  possibility,  if  wise  counsels  prevail,  that  the  sorely- 
needed  relief  from  the  blighting  etfects  of  past  unwise  legislation  relative 
to  finance,  which  the  people  so  earnestly  seek,  may  yet  be  had  through 
either  the  Republican  or  Democratic  party ;  both  of  them  meeting  in 
national  convention  at  an  early  date. 

"  It  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  assure  you  that  while  I  have  no  aspira- 
tion for  the  position  of  Chief  Magistrate  of  this  great  Republic,  I  will 
most  cheerfully  do  what  I  can  to  forward  the  best  interests  of  my 
country. 

"  I,  therefore,  accept  your  nomination,  conditionally,  expressing  the 
earnest  hope  that  the  Independent  Party  may  yet  attain  its  exalted 
aims,  while  permitting  me  to  step  aside  and  remain  in  that  quiet  which 
is  most  congenial  to  my  nature  and  time  of  life. 

<f  Most  respectfully  yours, 

"  PETER  COOPER." 

AN  OPEN  LETTER  BY  PETER  COOPER  TO  THE  CANDIDATES  FOR  THE 
PRESIDENCY,  NOMINATED  BY  THE  REPUBLICAN  AND  DEMOCRATIC  PAR- 
TIES, IN  CONVENTION  ASSEMBLED. 

«  NEW  YORK,  July  25th,  1876. 

"  Hon.  It.  B.  Hayes  and  Hon.   Samuel  J*.    Tilden. 
"  GENTLEMEN  : — 

"  I  find  myself  impelled  by  an  irresistible  anxiety  for  my  country ; 
by  the  palpable  facts  of  distress  and  suffering  that  surround  me,  and 
which  I  am  compelled  to  know  pervade  the  families  of  the  great  mass 
of  our  people  ;  by  the  earnest  calls  that  have  been  made  to  me  from  all 
parts  of  this  great  country ;  and  especially  by  the  solemn  and  deliberate 
«*ct  of  an  earnest  and  intelligent  body  cff  my  fellow-citizens,  in  conven- 
tion assembled,  who,  setting  forth  clearly  their  convictions  as  to  the 
real  cause  of  this  wide-spread  distress  among  the  masses  of  our  country- 
men, have  called  upon  me  to  represent  those  convictions,  and  nominated 
me  as  their  chief  executive  to  carry  them  out ; — by  all  these  consider- 
ations I  feel  called  upon  to  address  a  few  words  to  you,  who  now  hold 
the  nominations  of  the  two  great  organized  political  parties  in  this 
country  for  the  highest  positions  of  responsibility  as  to  the  future 
happiness  and  prosperity  of  this  great  people. 

"  Far  be  it  from  me  to  attribute  any  want  of  patriotism  or  any  un- 
worthy motive  to  your  honorable  selves,  or  to  the  leaders  of  those 


IT 

conventions  which  have  nominated  you  both,  respectively,  to  the  high 
office  of  the  President  of  the  United  States.  But  the  imminent  ques- 
ition  of  the  day,  that  which  touches  the  cause  of  the  present  financial 
ruin  and  suffering  of  so  many,  is  one  of  such  palpable  facts  and  simple 
deductions  therefrom,  that  I  must  think  there  is  some  mistake  in  the 
radical  principle  by  which  these  facts  are  viewed  by  you  and  the  great 
parties  which  you  represent.  I  find  in  the  platforms  of  the  conventions 
of  the  two  great  parties  no  adequate  expression  either  of  the  facts,  the 
causes,  or  the  principles  that  underlie  the  present  great  distress  of  our 
nation,  when  thousands  of  honest,  industrious  people  are  filled  with 
anxiety  for  the  bread  of  their  families,  or  are  suffering  already  from  an 
inadequate  supply.  This  seems  to  me  the  great  and  paramount  ques- 
tion of  the  day,  to  which  our  chief  thought  and  most  efficient  action 
should  be  directed,  and  before  which  all  other  questions  should  sink 
into  insignificance. 

"  What  is  the  cause  of  this  wide-spread  ruin  and  present  distress,  and 
what  is  the  immediate  remedy  ? 

"A  few  facts  of  history  and  of  public  record  will  show  this.  Ac- 
cording to  Spaulding's  Financial  History  of  the  War  (p.  201)  the  public 
debt  of  the  United  States  stood  on  the  books  of  the  Treasury,  October 
1st,  1865,  at  a  total  of  $2,803,549,437.  According  to  the  same  author, 
who  is  a  strong  advocate  for  specie  payments  (page  10,  Introduction), 
out  of  this  debt,  in  1864,  '  the  inflating  paper  issues,  outstanding,  were 
over  $1,100,000,000,' — and  gold  reached  its  highest  quotation,  2.85. 

"  Now,  be  it  remembered,  that  although  a  few  money-changers,  specu- 
lators, and  importers  were  willing  to  give  $2.85  of  paper  for  one  dollar 
in  gold,  yet  the  people  were  using  this  paper  to  buy  flour  and  exchange 
their  commodities  at  prices  that  were  far  less  than  this  inflated  price  of 
gold. 

"  Gold  was  no  longer  the  standard  of  exchange  except  in  foreign  com- 
modities where  'balances'  had  to  be  paid  in  gold.  The  internal 
trade,  commerce,  and  industries  of  the  country  were  steadily  increasing, 
and  never  before  so  flourishing  as  during  the  time  of  this  famine  for 
gold.  In  an  evil  hour,  it  became  the  policy  of  this  Government  to  re- 
duce all  our  paper  currency  to  the  standard  and  par  value  of  gold. 
This  \vas  attempted  by  the  withdrawal  of  the  paper  currency  as  fast  as 
practicable,  and  by  absorbing  the  same  by  an  arbitrary  law,  into  a  debt 
for  so  much  gold  as  the  face  of  the  paper,  in  the  shape  of  gold  bonds, 
bearing  the  yearly  interest  of  six  per  cent,  in  gold !  In  the  course  of 
less  than  eight  years  this  change  was  effected,  and  the  people's  money 
and  currency  of  all  kinds  were  reduced  subsequently  from  $2,192,395,527, 


as  represented  on  the  Treasurer's  books  on  September  1,  1865,  to  the 
sum  of  $631,488,676  on  the  1st  of  November,  1873,  making  a  reduc- 
tion of  the  currency  in  eight  years  of  $l,561,90j6,851  !  (See  Congres- 
sional Record,  March  31,  1874,  speech  of  John  M.  Bright,  of  Ten- 
nessee.)  This  brought  on  the  panic  of  1873  and  all  our  present  finan- 
cial troubles.  Although  a  part  of  this  vast  sum  was  a  kind  of  currency 
that  drew  interest,  and,  therefore,  partook  also  of  the  nature  of  an 
investment,  yet,  as  Mr.  Maynard,  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Banking  and  Currency,  said,  from  his  seat  in  Congress,  on  occasion 
of  Mr.  Bright's  speech,  *  those  issues  were  engraved  and  prepared  in  a 
form  to  circulate  as  money,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  did  so  circulate,' 
until  either  they  were  funded  or  *  the  interest  accumulated  so  as  to 
make  them  superior  to  the  ordinary  class  of  currency.'  But  this 
stupendous  decrease  in  the  people's  money — the  very  tools  of  their 
trades  and  enterprises  of  every  description,  the  use  of  which  they  had 
fairly  earned  by  the  blood  and  sacrifices  of  a  great  war,  and  the  beneficial 
.effects  of  which  were  proved  by  the  great  activity  in  business  and  trade 
which  it  engendered  as  long  as  it  lasted— this  great  reduction  in  the 
money  of  the  people  was  made  by  methods  equally  unjust,  as  they  were 
disastrous  to  the  prosperity  of  the  country. 

"This  paper  currency  was  absorbed  by  interest-bearing  gold  bonds, 
which  were  bought  by  the  paper,  which  in  its  turn  had  been  purchased 
by  gold  at  40,  50,  and  60  per  cent,  discount;  thus  turning  the 
debt  of  the  country  to  one  of  twice  its  value  in  paper,  and  paying 
for  the  gold  bonds  at  half  their  value  in  paper.  This  was  done  at  a 
time  when  this  paper  currency  was  doing  the  nation  all  the  good  that 
so  much  gold  could  do  for  our  domestic  prosperity  and  trade.  The 
people  were  building  up  the  country  with  a  rapidity  unexampled  before, 
with  this  paper,  which,  if  it  had  been  fully  honored  by  the  Government 
that  issued  it,  and  received  for  all  imports,  duties,  and  debts,  and  al- 
lowed to  be  exchanged  at  par  for  bonds  at  an  equitable  rate  of  interest, 
would  not  have  permitted  any  premium  on  gold. 

"  These  are  the  facts.  The  panic  of  '73  and  all  the  consequent  dis- 
tress of  the  industrial  classes  of  our  country,  and  its  baffled  enterprise, 
is  distinctly  due  to  the  contraction  of  the  currency  to  this  enormous 
extent  during  the  eight  years  preceding  1873.  It  stopped  credit,  pro- 
duction, and  consumption,  and  made  much  of  what  currency  was  left 
rush,  in  a  panic,  to  the  head  money-centres — as  the  blood  in  an  apo- 
plectic fit  rushes  to  the  head — where  this  money  is  now  vainly  seeking 
investmentj  £  in  first-class  security,'  at  two  per  cent. ;  while  the  country 
at  large  is  palsied  in  its  enterprises  and  industries  for  want  of  this  very 


19 

currency.  %  And  what  was  all  this  ione  for  ?  To  change  the  debt  of 
the  country  without  reducing  its  real  amount,  from  a  shape  beneficial  to 
the  people,  and  incorporated  as  an  integral  part  of  the  very  life-blood 
of  all  their  rising  industri4fc  and  their  growing  trade — this  paper  cur- 
rency was  turned,  almost  with  the  suddenness  of  a  conjuration,  and  by 
the  forms  of  an  arbitrary  construction  of  law,  into  another  shape, 
twice  in  amount  as  measured  by  the  same  paper,  and  taxing  the  people 
interest  on  it,  in  gold,  to  the  amount  of  $94,684,269  per  year.  (See 
statament  of  the  public  debt,  June,  1876.) 

"  Most  of  this  interest  is  now  paid  to  foreign  bondholders,  alien  to 
our  institutions  and  uninterested  in  our  prosperity,  except  to  keep  up 
our  ability  and  willingness  to  .bear  taxation. 

"  And  what  is  the  specious  reason  for  this  change  ?  *  To  return  to 
specie  payments  I ' 

"  What  can  this  policy  result  in  but  a  further  distress  and  impoverish- 
ment of  this  people  and  the  building  up  of  the  interests  of  a  class  whose 
business  it  is  to  invest  or  to  lend  money,  and  whose  policy  will  be  to  get 
the  highest  rate  of  interest  ?  Such  are  apt  to  forget  that  the  immediate 
gain  of  such  a  policy  is  far  less  than  that  which  arises  from  the  pros- 
perity of  the  whole  people,  and  the  multiplication  of  wealth  that  comes 
from  enterprise  unimpeded  and  industry  constantly  employed.  We  may 
concede  all  that  is  claimed  of  the  necessity  of  '  specie  payments,'  and 
our  currency  being  made  on  a  par  with  gold.  But  this  disastrous  and 
ill-judged  method  of  reaching  specie  payments,  by  the  past  and  present 
contraction  of  our  currency,  is  very  unjust  and  cruel  to  our  people ;  for 
it  shrunk  the  value  of  all  property,  so  that  it  could  not  be  sold,  or  mort- 
gages obtained  on  it,  for  more  than  one-half  the  amount  that  the  same 
property  would  have  brought  three  years  previous,  and  reduced  the 
wages  of  labor  to  the  same  degree.  This  return  to  *  specie  payments ' 
may  be  made  without  such  injury,  by  honoring  the  currency  in  every 
way ;  by  making  it  exclusively  the  money  as  well  as  the  legal  tender  of 
the  country ;  by  receiving  it  for  all  forms  of  taxes,  duties,  debts  to 
Government,  as  well  as  the  payment  of  all  private  debts ;  by  establish- 
ing its  value  on  a  firm  basis,  at  a  fixed  and  equitable  rate  of  interest, 
which  it  may  always  find  in  an  interconvertible  bond ;  and  by  determin- 
ing the  volume  of  the  currency,  where  the  unobstructed  laws  of  the  in- 
ternal trade  and  industry  of  this  country  may  require  it  to  be,  under 
the  free  use  of  the  interconvertible  bond.  This  great  national  debt 
ought  to  be  held  as  a  great  trust  by  the  Government  of  this  people,  and 
made  the  receptacle  of  all  the  trust  funds,  and  the  savings  of  all  the  poor 
among  our  own  people.  It  should  be  an  investment  put  within  the 


20 

reach  of  our  own  people,  instead  of  being  sent  abroad  to  swell  -the  coffers 
of  the  rich  in  other  countries. 

"  If  the  Government,  after  the  war  of  rebellion,  had  been  as  anxious 
to  heal  the  wounds  which  that  unhappy  %-ar  created,  to  alleviate  the 
poverty  which  it  brought  on  a  large  section  of  our  country,  to  reinstate 
the  broken  industries  and  enterprises  of  our  whole  people,  as  it  had  been 
to  carry  that  war  vigorously,  at  any  cost,  on  to  victory,  the  Government 
would  have  seen  that  peace  had  its  demands  as  well  as  war.  If  a  Gov- 
ernment is  bound  to  protect  the  people  from  the  aggressions  of  war,  it 
is  also  bound  to  save  it  from  commercial  distress,  and  the  sorrows  of  a 
laboring  population  without  work.  The  Government  might  now  free 
hundreds  of  thousands  from  imminent  want,  and  set  the  wheels  of  trade 
again  in  motion  by  building  the  two  great  railroads  across  the  Conti* 
nent  at  the  Southwest  and  Northwest  of  the  country  that  private  enter- 
prise has  already  commenced,  but  cannot  complete,  for  want  of  capital. 
The  legal  tender  of  a  solvent  country  like  this,  cannot  be  called  a  debt 
in  any  proper  sense  of  the  word.  It  is  money,  and  measures  the  ex- 
changeable value  of  all  property,  gold  included.  All  must  see  that  the 
currency  paid  out  by  the  Government  for  value  received  became  the 
people's  money,  over  which  the  Government  lost  all  control,  except  to 
tax  it,  as  all  other  property,  to  meet  the  wants  of  Government.  This 
amount  of  money,  even  now,  may  be  given  back  to  the  people  in  works 
of  great  national  importance,  like  that  of  a  Northern  &  Southern  Pacific 
Railroad,  that  would,  to-day,  be  worth  their  cost  in  aiding  to  put  down 
the  Indian  wars  that  now  threaten  the  frontier  of  our  country.  What 
is  a  Government  good  for,  if  in  such  a  country  as  this,  with  all  its 
material  resources,  and  vast  extent,  it  cannot  prevent  a  large  part  of  its 
people  from  the  distress  of  want  of  work  and  of  bread  ?  This  seems  to 
me  the  first  duty  of  Government. 

"  Sorry  am  I  to  see,  and  I  say  it  without  any  reproach  cast  upon  the 
integrity  of  those  concerned,  that  in  neither  of  the  platforms  of  the  poli- 
tical parties  that  represent  the  governing  intelligence  and  wealth  of  this 
country  is  this  great  question  of  finance  either  discussed  or  recognized 
in  its  principles,  or  bearings  upon  the  happiness  and  prosperity  of  this 
people — except  in  a  way  that  seems  to  me  adverse  to  both. 

"  I  have,  therefore,  consented,  with  great  reluctance,  to  go  before  the 
people — not  for  the  strife  of  office,  not  for  the  petty  triumphs  of  a  suc- 
cessful candidate,  but  for  the  vindication  of  a  great  principle  that  under- 
lies all  true  Republican  or  Democratic  Institutions — namely,  "that  the 
interest  and  happiness  of  the  whole  people  are  superior  to  the  demands 
or  interests  of  any  one  class ;  that  in  the  neglect  or  defiance  of  this  prin- 


21 

ciple,  the  great  debt  of  this  people,  incurred  by  a  war  to  save  the  life 
of  this  nation,  has  been  administered  too  ,much  by  the  advice  and  in  the 
interest  of  a  small  class  that  care  for  their  income,  but  cannot  look  out 
for,  or  attend  to  active  investments ;  hence,  they  prefer  the  bond  to  the 
currency ;  and  for  another  class  who  desire  the  highest  interest  for  the 
smallest  investment ;  hence  they  prefer  gold  to  a  paper  legal  tender ; 
and  for  still  another  class  who,  alien  to  our  institutions  and  country, 
care  only  to  tax  its  energies  and  wealth  for  the  highest  interest  they  can 
draw  for  an  immediate  investment  of  their  money.  But  these  are  not 
the  interests  of  the  people  of  this  country.  Neither  honor  nor  justice 
requires  such  administration  of  the  public  debt  of  this  country. 

"  I  feel,  therefore,  constrained  by  every  principle  of  honor  and  love 
for  my  country  to  come  forward  at  an  advanced  age,  and  with  a  mind 
that  would  gladly  seek  repose,  after  the  toils  of  a  long  and  laborious  life, 
to  answer  the  call  of  a  portion  of  my  countrymen,  to  try  these  issues 
before  the  people  of  the  whole  country;  to  test  these  truths  which  we 
hold  to  be  s'elf-evideiit,  as  soon  as  they  are  honestly  examined,  as  are 
the  truths  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  One  of  the  chief  of 
these  truths  is  that  as  all  rightful  Governments  are  made  for  the  people 
and  by  the  people ;  they  must  be  administered  with  a  parental  care  in 
the  interests  of  the  whole  people,  and  not  for  a  class.  No  single  interest 
touches  the  domestic  comfort  and  prosperity  of  the  people  as  this  one 
of  the  currency ;  and  in  the  present  condition  of  the  country,  none  is 
of  so  much  immediate  importance  or  calls  for  more  immediate  solution. 
To  put  off  this  question,  therefore,  with  vague  expressions  of  reform, 
and  the  desirableness  of  l  specie  payments,'  is  to  ignore  the  ruling  interest 
of  the  hour.  It  is  to  surrender  the  people  to  their  sufferings  without 
any  promise  of  remedy. 

"  I  appeal,  therefore,  from  those  who  seem  insensible  to  the  cry  of  the 
people  to  the  people  themselves.  I  appeal  from  the  political  parties, 
organized  to  control  the  Government,  and  distribute  the  offices  and 
emoluments  of  office,  to  the  great  industrial  classes  who  are  organized 
to  protect  their  interests  and  obtain  some  recognition  of  their  rights 
from^the  Government  of  the  country.  'Let  them  substitute  co-operation 
for  '  strikes,'  and  unite  to  save  themselves  and  the  country  from  the 
present  disaster  and  distress  to  all  the  industrial  classes.  Let  no  man 
think  of  the  bullet  while  he  has  the  ballot  in  his  hand.  It  needs  but  the 
use  of  that  simple  instrument  of  political  power  to  rectify  all  our  dig- 
contents  and  social  evils. 

"  Let  us  have  our  national  currency  duly  honored ;  let  us  take  tha 
testimony  of  the  nation's  experience,  and  that  of  other  countries,  as  to 


22 

what  such  currency  can  do  for  our  prosperity ;  let  the  gold  par  be  reached 
by  rendering  our  currency  of  higher  and  indispensable  uses,  as  now  ex- 
emplified in  France,  and  nof  by  contracting  its  amount;  and  let  ite 
volume  and  its  value  be  determined  by  the  interconvertible  bond,  placed 
at  the  disposal  of  the  wants  of  the  people  and  governed  by  all  the  forma 
and  sanctities  of  law;  and  not  surrender  the  currency  to  the  ever- 
changing  basis  of  a  commodity  like  gold — and  we  shall  have  peace  on 
this  question.  '  Justice  will  be  established  and  the  general  welfare  pro- 
moted;' prosperity  again  will  revisit  us,  and  we  shall  vindicate  the 
wisdom  and  superiority  of  our  free  institutions  before  the  world. 

PETER  COOPER. 


THE  COOPER  PAMPHLETS  ON  FINANCE, 


L  Address  to  the  Indianapolis  Convention  of  the  National  Inde- 
pendent Party.  "  An  Open  tetter  to  the  Candidates,  R.  B.  Hayes 
and  S.  J.  Tilden.  16  pp.  Price,  $1.00  per  hundred. 

n.  Two  Letters  and  an  Address  on  the  Currency.     16  pp.     Price, 

$1.00  per  hundred. 

Ill  Two  Open  Letters  to  President  R.  B.  Hayes.     16  pp.     Price, 

$1.00  per  hundred. 

IV.  Dangers  of  a  War  of  Commerce.    Influence  of  the  Currency  on 

National  Prosperity.    16  pp.   Price,  $1.0^pef']|j^||^. 
V.  Importance  of  an  Unfluctuating  Currency.     16  pp.     Price,  $1.00 

per  hundred. 

VI.  An  Open  Letter  to  John  Sherman.   16  pp.  Price,  $1.00  per  hundred. 
VII  Our  Financial  Revolution.    (BY  CADMUS.)    16  pp.    Price,  $1.00  pei 

hundred. 

VIII.  The   Political  and   Financial  Opinions  of  Peter  Cooper,  with 

an  Autobiography  of  his  Early  Life.     96  pp.     With  portrait.     Price, 
0          $6.00  per  hundred,  or  10  cents  per  copy. 

Address,  TROWS  PRINTING  AND  BOOKBINDING  CO., 

205-213  EAST  TWELFTH  STREET,  NEW  YORK. 


IVOTE, — Individuals  and  Clubs  who  wish  to  propagate  the  Platform  of  the 
"National  Independent  Party,"  and  a  National  Currency,  as  it  is  set  forth  in 
these  pamphlets,  can  have  them  at  the  prices  above  mentioned,  postage  prepaid 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below, 
or  on  the  date  to  which  renewed.  Renewals  only: 

Tel.  No.  642-3405 

Renewals  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  date  due. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


LD21A-40m-8,'71 
(P6572slO)476-A-32 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


